Tuesday, December 10, 2019

Visiting Arium Botanicals, in Portland

At the urging of my friend Ann, I attended a meeting of the PNW branch of the American Begonia Society back on Nov 24th . That meeting took place at Arium Botanicals, a shop I'd never even heard of—even though they're burning up Instagram with 47K followers. Where have I been!?

The houseplant craze just keeps building (which I suppose means it isn't just a craze?) and shops like this are popping up around town (and in my Instagram feed).

I'll admit seeing Instagram explode with houseplant pictures and the accompanying hashtag madness (#plantparenthood #houseplantsofinstagram #monsteramonday) had me rolling my eyes—at first. But many (most?) of these houseplant lovers are actually serious plant people with impressive knowledge of these plants.

Here at Arium the plants are all labeled with their proper botanical names. This should be standard operating procedure when selling plants, but it's definitely not.

This Rhipsalis boliviana was pretty adorable, but at $30 a little rich for my blood.

They had some really nice pottery too...

The space is full, but not cramped.

And installations like this...

And this...

...are very inspiring. As is the moss-covered column for growing plants up, up, up. Note there are smaller ones available (on the right)...

I must admit watching and eavesdropping I was very much feeling like the 20-something apartment dweller I used to be...the younger me longing to own a home and thus a garden.

I didn't buy my first home until I was 34—that was a few years ago (just a few...)—but I've come to take having soil to plant in for granted now. How I would have loved shops like this when I did not.

Wait! I love shops like this now!!! Like a great deal of my plants, these are houseplants in the winter, patio plants in the summer (thanks to Ann for that great label—"patio plants")

Anthurium pedato-radiatum (kokedama version—$205)

There were lots of mounted plants available...

Dischidia imbricata

And a nice selection of kokedama too...

But the reason I was there was for the Begonia Society meeting, right? They were very enthusiastic plant people, and of course brought lots of great plants to show and share.

This spiky guy—brought by Emily, of In Search of Small Things—is Begonia versicolor. I also visited Emily's home garden and propagation area and will have a post on that amazingness coming up soon.

Here Linda is showing off a leaf cutting of Begonia masoniana (the iron cross begonia).

I went home with cuttings of Begonia soli-mutata (Sun-Changing Begonia) and Begonia bowerae nigramarga, which I'm trying to get to root. I also bought a fabulous little bird's nest sansevieria from Arium...it was a good night!

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Weather Diary, Dec 9: Hi 49, Low 38/ Precip 0

All material © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

20 comments:

  1. What a great shop -- gorgeous, healthy stock; big, light-filled, airy space; vertical plant hangings; Kokedama! Thanks for showing it off. It must have been lots of fun.

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    1. You'll have to stop in the next time you're down this way.

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  2. Love how they showed a variety of ways to stage house plants. Had a chuckle re: having stores like this around when you were younger. There might have been but, if like me, you probably didn't yet have the income to visit them.

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    1. I really don't think there were...and I've never let the price keep me away. Inspiration is free!

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  3. Love the tall pale Euphorbia (?) in photo 3, and the second installation. No bargains in that store...

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    1. Actually my little sansevieria was a bargain!

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  4. The Begonia versicolor even has spikes on the bloom. I am surprised you could resist that one.

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    1. Well it wasn't for sale...so it was easy.

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  5. I'd love to see a shop like this around here. It is surprising how far we lag behind the latest trends! sigh ;)

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    1. And we've got quite a few! Surely one for you can't be too far off...

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  6. We bought our first house at age 42! And it was a thrill to have soil to plant in as you say. Those pre-house years were the only time i had houseplants that did well. Got all my attention which now goes to the garden.

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    1. In the winter months don't you yearn for a few houseplants?

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  7. I was the houseplant dept associate at the garden center in San Diego back in the 70's-I ordered them, merchandised them and maintained them.That was probably the peak of the previous houseplant craze-70's to the mid to late 80's. Way less diversity back then but we sure sold a ton of them from 4" pots to pricey speciman 15 gallon Ficus lyrata and Draceanas. The last few years I worked there (b4 moving up here) I moved outside to take care of and order the bedding color and veg, cactus and succulents and the roses. I think houseplant popularity started to wane in the late 80's.

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    1. Indeed, but as we know every trend comes back around eventually.

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  8. Nice shop! And kudos to them for using proper botanical names.

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    1. It really shouldn't be as shocking as it is. Everyone should do it!

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  9. What fun to find a new plant place close to home and to meet with a group of begonia enthusiasts!

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    1. So far I'm resisting falling too deeply into the begonia pit...

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  10. Nice looking shop. Actual botanical names, quite an achievement!

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  11. Dang - I had to check where this marvelous place is, and realized I drove by there today, and didn't even notice it. I need to pay more attention! Thanks for the alert and the preview!

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